On Sat, Jul 13, 2013 at 1:56 PM, REP <[email protected]> wrote: > Mike > > I must disagree with your fourth paragraph. Despite your request not to > 'don't do it here', not to indicate my dissent could be misconstrued as a > agreement. > > I do not intend to discuss the matter at length - but I will point out that > a couple of years ago there was a case in one of the Australian > jurisdictions where the material facts were similar. It wasn't free paper > model downloads that were at issue - I seem to recall it was either > embroidery patterns or clothing patterns - but the court held that the > copyright owner's claim was limited to copying /redistribution of the > pattern itself. That means you cannot give away copies you have made of the > pattern without the copyright owner's permission. But the item produced from > a pattern is a 'derived work' and the copyright and ownership in it - the > assembled item - belongs to the person to sews it and he or she can do with > it as wished. That multiple items were made and sold did not concern the > court. > > If one were intending to assemble and sell multiple items of a kit for which > there is charge - printed or digital - then legally and ethically one > should pay for a kit for each item assembled. That a kit is offered free of > charge would not change that principle. One might argue that in theory one > should download the free kit each time a free model were assembled, but that > seems to go to the absurdum. > > If anyone is interested, I'll try to locate the court report and sent it to > them off-list, on request. > > On reflection, it may be possible under contract law to limit the use of a > free pattern by making acceptance of certain limits or restrictions a > condition of the download, but that may vary from jurisdiction to > jurisdiction. Copyright is my specialty, not contract law. > > Bob Pounds
Bob, Please note my repeated use of the words "ethical" and "ethically," and *not* "legal" or "legally." :-) Mike Hungerford http://www.chthulhu.com/ -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Papermodels II" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
